Sailor Ishmael was I, in those days; a man of space, returning there again and again to wander through the void, protected from death only by a thin layer of metal and the work of my fellow crew. Seeking to leave some troubles behind me, which I had run into in Manhattan, I made to travel to Reestablished Bedford; and from there, I would take up a berth upon a wailer, a spacewhaler, a hunter of those greatest of voidfish.

Pequod, its name was, and its Captain Ahab pursued—ah, but that would be telling; for that is the story I shall set out to tell you all.

Let me tell you, friends, of my younger, more foolish self; of a Captain obsessed; of a ship most spaceworthy; and most of all, of a spacewhale by the name of Moby Dick.